


Can't Stop

by starryvagabond



Category: Hawkeye (Comics), Marvel (Comics), Young Avengers
Genre: Character Death, F/M, Implied/Referenced Abortion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-10
Updated: 2014-04-10
Packaged: 2018-01-18 21:43:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1443940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starryvagabond/pseuds/starryvagabond
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kate can't help but think about what might've been.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Can't Stop

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr drabble based on a request for Clint and Kate and their feelings being put out in the open. Unbeta'd. Enjoy.

They’re doing it again.

Whether “it” constitutes her on his lap, or him kissing hotly down her throat while she grinds against him through the layers of clothing separating them, or just the whole joint venture, Clint isn’t exactly sure. 

They shouldn’t be doing this. Fuck, she’s a baby and he’s some old pervert and why the hell does she do this to him? Why the hell does he let this happen?

"Fuck me," she whispers into Clint’s ear and he melds into the couch, liquid desire coursing through his veins as he kisses her deeply.

Later, after they’ve finished three rounds (and somehow ended up in the bedroom), the two archers are wrapped around each other. Limbs are tangled together and their mouths are still busy, kissing lazily as they bask in the afterglow. “God, you’re an animal,” he mutters, and she pulls back to laugh. Kate’s laugh is melodic, makes Clint smile, and he knows why they do this.

"I love you," he tells her, and she laughs even harder, hiding her face in the pillow. 

She never answers, but she does spend the night in her mentor’s arms.

-

It’s three weeks later and they’re at it again.

They go at it hard and fast, adrenaline rushing through both of their veins after a night of fighting and danger and they just want to  _feel_  each other and know they’re alive. 

It only lasts one round and then they’re exhausted, clinging to each other and Kate’s  _crying_  and he just shushes her as she lays on his chest, rocks her slightly and strokes her hair until she’s asleep. He’s not far behind her. 

Clint wakes when Kate moves off the bed, picking up an old t-shirt of Clint’s and slipping it on before putting her hair up in a messy bun to keep it off her neck. It’s the middle of summer and his air conditioner’s broken. The fan going back and forth in the corner of the room only does so much.

He watches her, pretending he’s still asleep. He sees her caressing her stomach, biting her lower lip.

"Kate?" Clint finally asks, grogginess laced in his voice. 

She knows she’s been caught, and she sighs heavily, not even looking at the male beside her. “I’m pregnant.”

He wonders what she’s waiting for. Her shoulders are tense, and he knows that she probably is struggling not to cry right now. Clint sits up and pulls her to him, holding her close. 

"I told you I love you, Kate. I mean it. We can make this work. We can-"

"I’m 23 years old," she snaps, pushing him away before letting out a dry sob. "I can’t have a baby! Especially with my mentor."

Those words hurt. Kate’s carrying his child and she still only thinks of him as her mentor. Her old-as-dirt mentor.

The span of silence between the two of them is almost deafening and is definitely uncomfortable. 

Clint reaches for her again and this time she lets him pull her into his strong arms, burying her face into his shoulder. “I can’t…” she sobs, and he rubs her back, feeling the bumps of her vertabrae under his shirt.

"Okay," is all he says.

-

It doesn’t happen for months. She’s not made of titanium and he’s not made of steel so they mourn the decision they made, mostly apart. 

She comes back to his apartment six months later for the first time - on her 24th birthday. He gives her flowers for her birthday. She throws them in his face.

It’s the next summer that Kate takes up with Tommy. Clint watches from afar. They grow apart.

She gets engaged in December. Married in May. Pregnant in August. Baby girl born in April.

Hawkeye is no longer one entity, but two. Clint is the child’s godfather, and he’s good at it. Kate thinks about the father he would have made. 

-

Tommy dies in battle when his daughter is ten. Kate mourns him for years. Gives her bow to her daughter when she turns sixteen, and in turn, the name Hawkeye. She never sees battle again. Doesn’t want to.

Clint grows old with a bottle of Beam. He doesn’t see Kate anymore, or her daughter. Kate told him never to come back after Tommy died. Perhaps because she didn’t want to be seen as weak in Clint’s eyes.

He never thought that about her. Not even for a moment.

She comes to see him one night, however. And even in his fifties, he finds the libido to make love to her. It’s different than before, but it’s definitely the two of them and nothing else matters.

"Did you regret it? Us?" Kate asks as they lay together afterward in his small apartment, tracing patters on his still well-sculpted chest with her nail. 

"Every single moment since you left," he said honestly, and he felt her stiffen in his arms. "For not stopping you. As selfish as that sounds."

Kate laughs, tears lining her eyes. “You’re so stupid,” she murmurs, kissing him deeply. “I love you, Hawkeye.”

Clint just laughs softly, and reaches over to turn off the light.


End file.
